Great plans, I went the bellows route (bought at lowes) for a while but found that one of Harbor freight tools $8.99 Garden sprayers works a bit better; nice and small, light, much more focused powerful stream of air and the nozzle hasn't melted yet in more than a year of use. Also good for blowing out or cleaning floor. With its bright orange tank it disrupts the rustic ambiance of the oven while in use, but stores nicely out of site in the wood storage area.

Jim

The sprayer sounds like a good solution.
I spent a little while banging the nozzle around on the bellows to get it into a good shape. Now if I lay it on the hearth, I can get a decent sized spot ash free in just a puff or two. Makes for much tastier pizza!!!
The bellows also works great for stoking up the embers just before tossing in some "Dirty Steaks". You can whiff off the ash layer and get the coals bright hot.

I just went out and bought some bellows, but making your own is so much cooler.

I'm sure a hairdryer would work very well, but somehow I think its nice to use the oven without any electrical gadgets.

Hi Frances,
I got a chance to take a photo of the bellows and I decided to show off a bit. Last spring, I took a blacksmithing class and made my oven tools. These are the handles for the rake and shovel.

Vickie, thanks so much for posting this. I had just asked someone to make a bellows for me (can't do ANYTHING like that myself) but now have some drawings. I presume you can make the handles and nozzle a bit longer??? I'm full of admiration!

Annie,
I hope they are helpful to you. They were not hard to make, the worst part of the whole thing (and still not very hard to do) was stapling the leather part of the bellows.

About the nozzle, I guess you can do whatever floats your boat... I used aluminum flashing that I had around from something else. I just kept folding it around until I had something that looked like it might work. Then I stapled that on to the wood too. I had a good time with the stapler that day!
As far as the handles... I wouldn't go too long, mine fits in where my wood is stored so it's always close at hand.

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